Baked Oatmeal & Eggs
Ricotta, baked oatmeal with walnuts & cinnamon, brown butter with fried sage & lemon juice, baked eggs
Recipe
Ingredients: 1 ball of pizza dough flour for dusting olive oil salt & pepper 5 tablespoons butter 6 sage leaves ½-1 cup ricotta 3 eggs lemon juice
For the baked oatmeal*: 3 cups old fashioned oats ¾ cup walnuts, roughly chopped 3 oz maple syrup 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling 3 cups milk 2 eggs 3 tablespoons melted butter 1 tablespoon vanilla
*The baked oatmeal ingredients will make enough to fill a 9"x13" baking pan. This is obviously way more than you need for the pizza, so feel free to cut it down to your desired amount, or to fit whatever baking dish you have. If not, this will make a tasty breakfast for several days—it goes great with yogurt!
Directions: Preheat your oven to 375° F. The baked oatmeal can be made ahead of time if you like—it’ll take about 45 minutes to an hour to make, including prep time.
While the oven is heating, toast your chopped walnuts in a pan over medium heat, until they are fragrant and just beginning to brown. Next, butter the inside of your baking dish.
In a bowl, mix together the walnuts, oats, baking powder and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, whisk together your wet ingredients: syrup, milk, eggs & vanilla. Melt your butter and whisk that in as well.
Pour the dry ingredients in an even layer in your baking dish, and then slowly pour the milk mixture on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon and pop it in the oven. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden and the oat mixture has set. Take it out and let it cool, covering if you’re making it ahead of time, and increase the oven to 450° F.
Meanwhile, you can make the brown butter. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When it’s completely melted, add the sage and reduce the heat to medium-low.
Keep an eye on it as it cooks, stirring occasionally, until the sage starts to get crispy and the butter turns a nice nutty brown. Make sure you take it off the heat as soon as it starts to brown, or else it will burn.
Squirt in a little lemon juice and set the mixture aside. After taking it off the heat, I like to keep it near the oven so that it doesn’t cool down and congeal.
When the oven is hot, you can prepare your dough using the instructions on the right. After you’ve baked it for a minute, take it out and brush it lightly with olive oil. Next, spoon out dollops of the ricotta, followed by crumbles of the baked oatmeal.
Now drizzle the brown butter over the entire pizza, and sprinkle the fried sage on top. If the sage hasn’t naturally snapped into smaller pieces from being crispy, you can break it up by hand.
Next come the eggs. You’re going to want to clear a couple spaces on the pizza where you plan on putting them—anything to reduce the risk of the yolk breaking. I also like to crack them individually in a measuring cup first, so it makes them easier to pour, and you can scrape out any unwanted shell bits.
After you’ve poured your eggs onto the pizza, pop it in the oven. You’re going to need to watch this one a little more carefully than a normal pizza—even if the crust looks nice and golden, it’s all about whether the eggs are cooked.
It’ll probably take about 10 minutes or so (maybe longer), until the eggs look opaque and don’t jiggle too much when you pull the pizza out. If you’re really having a hard time getting them to that point without burning the crust, you can turn your oven on broil for a minute, or turn the temperature down and let them cook for a few more minutes.
Additionally, if you keep the pizza on the pizza stone after you take it out, the eggs will continue to cook for a little longer from the heat underneath. When they’re finished, cut your slices right through the eggs so the yolk will ooze out—and enjoy!